Ingenious Inkling

Beautiful Orange

I love orange ... my studio and the artwork that hangs in it are filled with orange accents ... I even have a pair of orange shoes.  When I saw that the SRM Sticker Blog had a challenge to create something orange with stickers, I knew I had to play along.

 
The oranges in the K&Company Que Sera Sera papers are so rich.  I combined a Tag from that line with coordinating papers.  The thing I love about clear stickers is that the fonts are bold enough to stand out against busier background patterns.  These stickers were left over from one of my projects at Inspired several years ago. 

I added some Kelly Panacci flourishesto the corner and some texture with velour fiber to finish the design.

Tropical Thank You

I have some friends who recently returned from a tropical vacation and asked me to make a thank you card for their gracious host.  They requested a masculine design with a tropical theme in the colors of blue and yellow to coordinate with the colors of their host's boat.

Unfortunately, my stamp collection is almost completely devoid of tropical designs ... I've got lots of farm and snow ... but we don't get much tropical in Iowa.  Thankfully, I found some Me and My Big Ideas in my stash that fit the bill.  I combined them with this week's Get Sketchy layout (flipped on its side).

I used the Basic Grey Lime Rickey Blue Moon paper because it reminded me of waves.

Moxie Fab Taintor-tude

The challenge at the Moxie Fab Blog is to make some cards in the style of the amazing Anne Taintor.  Allison clued me into this amazing Gallery of Graphic Design.  I had so much fun looking through all of the vintage advertisements and thinking about how I could use them in card designs.  I made three today, but I'm guessing I'll be making more before I'm done.

The first one features an advertisement from Kotex in 1952.  Don't you just love the look on her face?

The next one is a 1934 ad by Community Plate from Good Housekeeping.

The final one features a Simmons Beauty Rest ad from Life Magazine in 1950. 

I decided to use the size of the pictures to determine my card size and keep them simple with frames to bring out the colors in the images.   Very fun.

Flourished Hope

This week's SCS Inspiration Challenge is to be inspired by the designs from a fabulous Toronto company, Espe.  I absolutely adore their color combinations and designs.

I chose this LuLu Long Wallet for my inspiration.  I loved the tall layout, layered butterfly, and butterfly trail.

I started by trying to use my Silhouette to cut flourishes, but I'm still struggling to figure out the right mix to get it to cut through heavier cardstock (I tried having it cut the image twice, but still no luck yet).  After quite a bit of frustration, I decided to see what else might work for my design.

I found these lovely Fancy Pants Flourishes in my stash, so I let them determine the color palette for my card.

I added the stamped "hope" sentiment in Chestnut Roan.  The butterfly is a scrap of Memory Box DP on top of another chocolate butterfly.  I free-handed the punched trail.  If I created this card again, I would have cut a scrap piece of cardstock in the shape I wanted my punched train, and then used it as a template.  However, I love the free-hand design.

Hope you find inspiration.

Let's Be Satellites!

This card uses MME Love Me Do papers with this week's Unscripted Sketch.  This fun Valentine image is from Sideshow Stamps.

Hip to Be Square

The challenge at the Cards Blog was to make a card featuring squares.  This is what I came up with using the awesome Jenni Bowlin Brown Mini Papers.

Love that Hero Arts Bold Flourish.  Square sentiment, accented with tiny coffee pearls, is from Outlines. 

Thursday Link Love

My favorite Internet finds from the week:

• It's not too late to make 2010 Calendar gifts ... and with this free download of super-cool tiny calendars that fit inside almost any 1 1/2" punch, who wouldn't want to play?
• A quick idea for turning a flower punch into a butterfly
• You've got to check out this ingenious idea to combine game boards and frames to create artistic storage
• I think it's going to be a crockpot weekend ... this recipe for Taco Soup sounds yummy ... or maybe Enchilada Chili
• My friend Jenyfur is the Communications Director for SRM Stickers ... and she's looking for a design team ... if you love Stickers, check it out
• I ♥ the Bombus Etsy Store ... so many cool things made with vintage maps

Happy Thursday!

Ginger Gem

I was excited to see that my Settle for More card was chosen as a Ginger Gem in the Resolutions Challenge at the Gingersnap Creations Blog. 

Thing of Beauty

The Tuesday Challenge at the Jacksonbelle Blog is to use holiday papers to make an every day card.  Please link your card to the Blog post & use JBE090 as a keyword if you upload to a gallery.  I'm always on the lookout for papers that have multiple possibilities.

I've had so much fun making Valentines with the Pink Paislee Cupid Post Cards. However, they also work for non-Valentine cards as well.

I combined this week's Get Sketchy! Sketch with stamps from Cornish Heritage Farm's Ornamental Beauty collection.  I added my new Martha Stewart Butterfly punch for an accent and, although it's hard to see in the picture, stamped Hero Arts Design Block Flourish on the chocolate card base. 

To finish I colored the flowers with colored pencils & for Lucy's Glitter Challenge, added Fruit Punch Stickles for an overall sparkle. 

So dig through those Designer Papers you've been saving for holiday cards & think outside the box.

Make sure you check out the cards by the other Jacksonbelle Rockstars from the main post or the links on my side bar.

I can't wait to see what you create.

To Know You

No stamping for me tonight ... just the Sketch from 2 Sketches 4 You and fun papers from My Mind's Eye Love Me Do Collection.  These colors make me happy.

I use a regular nail file to sand off the perforations on the die cuts, and then add a little sponged ink for dimension.  To get the wavy border, I punched both sides of a strip of paper with the EKSuccess Dotted Wave Punch (start punching in the center of your paper, so it will make it easy to line up the waves on both sides). The die cut heart is layered with several punched hearts to finish the design. 

See you in the morning for another fun Jacksonbelle Tuesday Challenge.